Tuesday, March 21, 2017

More From NOM on the Trans Hate Bus

NOM seems to be transitioning — to a full-blown anti-LGBT hate group. As I wrote about Monday, National Organization for Marriage has a new toy. It is a bus that serves as mobile signage promoting the Catholic Church's teaching regarding transgender people. We have some additional information from NOM Tuesday via a post promoting Brian S. Brown's “press conference” on behalf of NOM, International Organization for the Family and CitizenGO. CitizenGo is a Madrid organization with close ties to the Church. Brown is on the organization's board.

They are “call[ing] on all Americans to respect the free speech rights of citizens to debate these issues without fear of being demeaned, harassed, or threatened with retaliation.” “Free speech rights” mean speech free from government interference. Apparently free speech for Brian Brown involves curtailing the free speech of those who are critical of his religious gibberish.

Debate? Transgender issues and those regarding gender dysphoria are not up for debate. There is overwhelming consensus in the medical and scientific communities. Disagreement can be voiced via a peer-reviewed paper published to a double-blind scholarly journal. That is how medical issues are debated and these are medical issues. Perhaps Mr. Brown can cite something in the literature to support his hypotheses. Probably not.

Brown tries to create a logically flawed argument:

“It’s biology, not bigotry,” said Brian S. Brown, president of both NOM and IOF. “Men and women were created equally, each given a gender that is fixed, immutable and complementary. Rather than perpetuate a lie that gender can be changed based on emotions and feelings, we should encourage people to embrace and love who they were made to be.”

It is bigotry cloaked in catechism. Brown has confused sex and gender in order to conform his world to the teachings of the Catholic Church. He has then used the confusion to create a straw man argument.

Then it's direct to the pope:

The bus tour organizers echoed a sentiment repeatedly raised by Pope Francis, that “gender ideology” is “an error of the human mind that leads to so much confusion” and is a key element in why “the family is under attack.” The Pope has condemned the teaching of “gender theory” in public schools, especially in developing nations, where he says it amounts to “ideological colonization” by influential western countries such as the United States. “And this is terrible,” the Pope said last August. “We are experiencing a moment of the annihilation of man as the image of God.”

So tell me, where and when did the pope obtain a license to practice medicine? Where did this erudition come from? What medical and scientific literature can the pope cite to support these views? What does “gender ideology” even mean or is it just dishonest demagoguery? What is the scientific basis for any of this drivel?

More spectacular stupidity follows from Brown's buddy?

“Proponents of gender ideology refuse to debate the scientific basis for their gender theory and instead resort to vicious character attacks on anyone who opposes them,” said Ignacio Arsuaga, president of CitizenGO, a community of active citizens who promote life, family and liberty. “A recent scientific report from researchers with Johns Hopkins University found that there is no scientific basis for the idea that someone could be ‘trapped in the wrong body’ and that almost everyone who experiences feelings of gender confusion will outgrow them by the time they complete puberty. Yet LGBT activists have pushed their gender agenda into the schools, teaching children that they can choose their own gender. We agree with Pope Francis, ‘this is terrible.’”

Arsuaga is referring to a blog post to The Atlantis and neither of the authors are “researchers from Johns Hopkins University.” McHugh is essentially retired and Mayer has, at best, a peripheral association. Moreover, their post is not a “scientific report.” Scientific reports are published to respected peer-reviewed journals. The Atlantis is just a pretentious blog. Clearly Arsuaga does not know what a theory is or he would not be using the word (nor would the pope). More importantly there are mountains of peer-reviewed literature regarding transgenderism and gender dysphoria. In other words — What the fuck is this ignoramus talking about?

Four simple facts:

Some people experience gender dysphoria which is a condition describing the discomfort of in-congruent sex and gender. The condition has been in the medical literature for more than a half century.

There no known medical intervention that will reverse gender dysphoria.

Gender affirmation relieves some or all of the discomfort associated with gender dysphoria

Transgender people often experience considerable stress brought on by discrimination and ignorance. NOM's post is a good example.